Bad Starfish

Every hero needs a an evil doppelganger. "Lily" is created by the Triumvirate to psychologically attack Starfish.

The Instruments of Destruction

Above is a sketch of two more Starfish baddies... They are brothers Warrhead (right) and Bomblast (left) and founding members of an organization called The Instruments of Destruction or IOD, terrorists for hire. They eventually become a recurring bane to Starfish's existence.

Starfish: A Modern Myth

I've always been intrigued by the idea that superhero stories are the myths of the modern era. We like stories. Furthermore, we like stories that reflect a struggle. I doubt any of the ancient Greeks fought the many-headed Hydra creeping around in their backyards, but I feel they could relate with Heracles' battle as he chopped one head only to see another one grow back in its place. This concept is not new, we see it everyday trying to handle our own problems as we solve them and more appear just as we think we're done. This is the power of myth and almost all storytelling, we are entertained by seeing ourselves in our heroes.

This is what I'm attempting to do with Starfish, tell a modern myth. It's not a completely original idea, but I'm hoping it will be an interesting take. My hope is to have a layered story and try to explain what the modern concept of evil is through images and metaphors that fit our times. How would a young person, given immense power, deal with the world around us. When evil takes the form of cancer or terror, natural disaster, or even fear, how do we fight. This is Novie's challenge as she grows to realize saving the world isn't as easy as punching holes through jet airplanes.

Bring 'em on!

Presenting The Triumvirate of Evil....

from left to right:

Zeitgeist: A fiery entity able to influence the darkest corners of the human psyche on a mass scale.

Metastasis: A bogeyman-like demon controlling disease and decay.

Cataclyst: A demi-god able to create and manipulate natural disasters.

These three make up the crux of Starfish's adversity throughout the series. Their power originates from a cancerous dark energy ripping its way across the cosmos. Their goal is to unravel all of creation and snuff out the light of the universe. It's Starfish's mission to put a stop to their plan and find the connection to the power that fuels her jet pack.

#2 @ ZUDA!!!

Thanks to everyone voting! I'm really amazed at how much progress has been made in just a few days! I'm thrilled to no end.

And the name that said on him was ZUDA!!!!

Starfish is live on Zuda comics!!! http://zudacomics.com. Vote early, vote...uhhh... once. Last July they announced this whole Zuda thing.... about June, the month just before, I was a little fed up by submitting to normal print comics and never actually seeing anything materialize. I decided to self-publish Starfish on the web. I was starting to gather information on what dimensions I should reformat my pages so that they would appear better on a computer screen when the launch of Zuda was announced and the now famous 4:3 aspect ratio was put into place... it was really strange how all of that worked out. Anyway, some retooling and I finally got to submit just before New Year's... pretty soon after, I was accepted and informed I would be competing in February's contest. Here it is...now it's official. Starfish, she be published!

Why Starfish? Part II

Even though I had abandoned submitting a proposal to the Epic line over at Marvel using the Rogue character. The idea of a youthful and rebellious female activist superhero stuck with me. I've coached Individual Events Speech at the local high school for almost 15 years now where about 75-80% of the team are always girls. In competition, I get to see a side of girls not reflected in most of popular media. In comics especially, heroic women are almost always portrayed as cutesy power puffs, voluptuous sex-starved vixens, or at the very least, some derivative of a male superhero. I've hardly ever seen a heroic girl take the "hero's journey" with a sense of strong ambition to do what's right or even a sense of responsibility to the world around her. I began to take the best attributes I found in coaching these young women, their ambition, their work ethic, their desire to win, and build a character around them. I used the name of a girl who I had nicknamed Starfish for a reason I can't even remember now. Starfish had recommended a song to me at the time, Jet Pack by Eve 6, and like most music, it inspired a story.